Subject: The book is the fruit of five years of on-site research on citizenship in the Arab world. It takes a broader legal perspective to the multifaceted reality of nationality and citizenship. The methodology employed builds on the interdisciplinary approach of comparative legal studies, and brings in theories, concepts and insights from anthropology, political science, Arab and Islamic studies, linguistics and sociology. The work relies on a broad range of Western and Arab references, and all sources and documents were directly accessed in their original languages; this is particularly relevant for Arab legislation (all in-text reference has been translated by the author, and the original has been inserted using scientific transliteration). -- Website OAPEN Library.

The Crisis of Citizenship in the Arab World provides crucial insights into the current political, social and cultural crisis in the Middle East and North Africa by analysing histories, concepts, and practices of citizenship and the mechanisms that undermined them.

This comprehensive Handbook gives an overview of the political, social, economic and legal dimensions of citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa from the nineteenth century to the present. The terms citizen and citizenship are mostly used by researchers in an off-hand, self-evident manner. A citizen is assumed to have standard rights and duties that everyone enjoys. However, citizenship is a complex legal, social, economic, cultural, ethical and religious concept and practice. Since the rise of the modern bureaucratic state, in each country of the Middle East and North Africa, citizenship has developed differently. In addition, rights are highly differentiated within one country, ranging from privileged, underprivileged and discriminated citizens to non-citizens. Through its dual nature as instrument of state control, as well as a source of citizen rights and entitlements, citizenship provides crucial insights into state-citizen relations and the services the state provides, as well as the way citizens respond to these actions. This volume focuses on five themes that cover the crucial dimensions of citizenship in the region: Historical trajectory of citizenship since the nineteenth century until independence Creation of citizenship from above by the state Different discourses of rights and forms of contestation developed by social movements and society Mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion Politics of citizenship, nationality and migration Covering the main dimensions of citizenship, this multidisciplinary book is a key resource for students and scholars interested in citizenship, politics, economics, history, migration and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa.

The violent transitions that have dominated developments since the Arab Uprisings demonstrate deep-seated divisions in the conceptions of state authority and citizen rights and responsibilities. Analysing the Middle East through the lens of the ‘citizenship approach’, this book argues that the current diversity of crisis in the region can be ascribed primarily to the crisis in the relations between state and citizen. The volume includes theoretical discussions and case studies, and covers both Arab and non-Arab countries.

“Nassar brings to life the artistic prowess, rallying cries, and dashed dreams of the leading Palestinian litterateurs in Israel.” —Shira Robinson, author of Citizen Strangers When the state of Israel was established in 1948, not all Palestinians became refugees: some stayed behind and were soon granted citizenship. Those who remained, however, were relegated to second-class status in this new country, controlled by a military regime that restricted their movement and political expression. For two decades, Palestinian citizens of Israel were cut off from friends and relatives on the other side of the Green Line, as well as from the broader Arab world. Yet they were not passive in the face of this profound isolation. Palestinian intellectuals, party organizers, and cultural producers in Israel turned to the written word. Through writers like Mahmoud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim, poetry, journalism, fiction, and nonfiction became sites of resistance and connection alike. With this book, Maha Nassar examines their well-known poetry and uncovers prose works that have, until now, been largely overlooked. The writings of Palestinians in Israel played a key role in fostering a shared national consciousness and would become a central means of alerting Arabs in the region to the conditions—and to the defiance—of these isolated Palestinians. Brothers Apart is the first book to reveal how Palestinian intellectuals forged transnational connections through written texts and engaged with contemporaneous decolonization movements throughout the Arab world, challenging both Israeli policies and their own cultural isolation. Maha Nassar’s readings not only deprovincialize the Palestinians of Israel, but write them back into Palestinian, Arab, and global history.

The essays in this work illustrate the various ways in which women in the Middle East fall short of being vested with the rights and privileges that would define them as fully enfranchised citizens. They offer an examination of national legislation on personal status, penal law and labour.

Pluralism and rights are under threat from communal violence, authoritarianism, and religious identity politics. How is the Middle East attempting to create more inclusive rights and citizenship? How do religious and nonreligious minorities envision their future in the region? On what basis can communities enjoy citizenship or seek rights in an era when law increasingly draws on religion and majoritarianism for its legitimacy? In this volume, researchers and activists draw on extensive fieldwork to open a new line of discussion in the Middle East as well as among Western policymakers. The question of belonging is more urgent than ever, as governments promote a simplistic discourse that opposes secularism and promotes a MuslimsversusChristians or SunniversusShia read of contemporary conflicts. Contributors include Rohan Advani, Mustafa Akyol, Zaid alAli, Lina Attalah, Melani Cammett, Joseph Daher, Cale Salih, Maria Fantappie, Mark Farha, Mona Fawaz, Fanar Haddad, Yassin AlHaj Saleh, Karl Sharro, and Elizabeth Thompson.

As a response to processes of globalization, regional integration and ethnic conflicts, the study of citizenship has regained new interest among social scientists and legal experts. This approach focuses on the relationship between the state and the people-as individuals and collectivities, citizens and non-citizens-both those living within or outside its borders. Citizenship defines the terms of rights and obligations in a society, regulates political participation and access to public goods and properties. Together, with its companion volume, Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, this book represents the first systematic critical attempt to interpret the complex nature of Middle East politics from a citizenship perspective. In addition, the book provides both theoretical contributions and case studies, and includes a significant section on Israel and Palestine.

This is the first book in English that draws together the work of intellectuals at the forefront of research on the Arab region's key human rights issues. Its empirical and theoretical focus is on the historical and contemporary place of human rights in Arab politics and the obstacles to advancing rights in the region.

Wired Citizenship examines the evolving patterns of youth learning and activism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In today’s digital age, in which formal schooling often competes with the peer-driven outlets provided by social media, youth all over the globe have forged new models of civic engagement, rewriting the script of what it means to live in a democratic society. As a result, state-society relationships have shifted—never more clearly than in the MENA region, where recent uprisings were spurred by the mobilization of tech-savvy and politicized youth. Combining original research with a thorough exploration of theories of democracy, communications, and critical pedagogy, this edited collection describes how youth are performing citizenship, innovating systems of learning, and re-imagining the practices of activism in the information age. Recent case studies illustrate the context-specific effects of these revolutionary new forms of learning and social engagement in the MENA region.